16. A Grotesque Gift #3
"You all work for me," Nash's raised voice drew her gaze. "There seems to have been some confusion about that fact. It seems someone here thought that they could cross me with no consequences."
There was a nervous shifting in the crowd. Iris marveled at the sheer number of guards. She had no idea there were so many. They must have worked hard to stay out of sight. Knowing that one, or possibly more, sold them out made her nauseated.
"It seems that I need to refresh your memory." Nash pulled out his phone and read something. A dark smile transformed his face into something sinister. "Make sure you all remember who it really is you work for. And what that means. Marcus? Step forward."
The sea of men parted, revealing a lanky man with sandy blonde hair. His eyes were shifting nervously between the men and Nash. He stepped forward slowly, stopping when he reached the front of the group of guards. Going no closer to Nash.
"You signed off that the gift was safe. That it passed all its inspections." Nash's words were cold. Filled with something she couldn't name that sent her nerves on high alert. She would go as far as to call him terrifying in that moment.
"It did! I swear, someone must have swit—" his words stopped abruptly when Nash held up his hand.
"Stop talking. The time for excuses passed the moment you agreed to cross me," quicker than her eyes could track him, he pulled out a gun she didn't even know he had on him.
She had a moment to process it before she felt hands covering her ears.
She turned around to stare into the emotionless eyes of the man behind her.
The blast of the gun rang out behind her, dulled by the scarred mans hands. As soon as Nash lowered his arm, the hands dropped away, and she felt her legs give out. She turned to take in the scene and it was too much.
Iris's hands shot up to cover her mouth, her eyes locked on the grisly scene before her. The man's blonde hair was streaked with red and his lifeless eyes were staring out at her. Marcus was nothing more than a body now.
Iris's chest heaved with every terrified breath. Her eyes never strayed from the dead man across the room from her. The pool of thick, red blood growing with every inhale. There was a dead body right there. It was the first one she had ever seen. And now...
Now she saw him murdered. By her husband.
The thought rattled around in her mind. Her husband killed a man. He was a murderer.
"Trust is earned," Nash's sharp voice thundered, cutting the tense silence.
Iris jolted in shock, her eyes finally leaving the morbid sight before her.
All the guards were staring at him with wide, nervous eyes.
"Each one of you just lost it. Let this be a lesson for all of you.
" He tucked his gun back into his holster and then stood staring at all of them with a narrowed eyed glare.
"If you give me even one reason to question your loyalty, you will meet the same fate." He slowly turned his head, meeting each one of the guards' eyes with a steady glare. "No warnings, no second chances. You'll be dead before you have the chance to cross me."
With that, he turned around and crossed the hall until he stood directly in front of her.
She stared at the hand he offered her with dazed eyes.
Finally, she reached out and gripped his hand desperately.
Wordlessly, he pulled her up and led her out of the room.
With no hesitation, she followed behind him.
Letting him lead her. She felt unmoored.
Waking up alone, finding the mutilated rabbit, watching her new husband murder a man in cold blood, it was all too much. She was sinking, falling down into the abyss with no way up. But she followed him all the same. It was easier to simply follow him than try to make sense of her own emotions.
With a hand on her back, he ushered her into their room, pushing her past the bed and out the double doors that led to the balcony.
He gently pushed her down into one of the plush lounge chairs, urging her to rest. His eyes bored into hers.
If she didn't know him better, she would have sworn it was worry she saw in those blue depths.
"Are you alright?" He asked her while his hands pushed back her hair. Her eyes bulged when she heard him.
The question struck her as particularly absurd. Was she alright? She just saw him kill someone. Of course, she wasn't alright.
There were no words. Nothing she could say to answer him. It sent her over the edge and she lost control, for just a moment. Desperate laughter bubbled up from within her. The rushing wind that blew in from the sea swallowed her maniacal laughter. But, still, she was helpless to stop it.
Her deranged laughter seemed to have a life of its own. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Her eyes were glassy. Through her tears, she saw him kneel before her, but it was no help. A sob escaped her, and she bawled inconsolably.
"Iris, tell me what I can do." Nash's deep voice broke through her mania. His question sobered her. What could he do? Her tears dried up, and she stared at him in shock.
"What can you do?" She repeated, her words biting.
"How about you don't kill someone right in front of me?
How about that?" Her bitter words seemed to surprise him, and he pulled back to stare at her.
His face would have been funny in any other situation.
As if she was the one acting out of character.
"Iris, now you—"
"No! You don't get to act like I am the irrational one here." She interrupted loudly, her hands pushing against his hard chest, trying to get space from him. He didn't budge, it felt like pressing against a wall. "How could you do that? You just shot him! He's dead now!"
"That was the point, Iris. If I didn't want him dead, I wouldn't have shot him." His droll reply sent her over the edge.
"How can you be so cavalier about this? A man is dead now." Her voice turned shrill even to her own ear, but she couldn't seem to control it. His disregard for human life was too much. She suspected he had killed before, but she never expected to see him do it herself.
"A man who betrayed us is dead. He got exactly what he deserved." His words were hard, uncompromising. He wasn't sorry for what he did. "He knew exactly what he was signing up for. No one crosses me."
"But what if he was innocent?" She threw back at him. "You just decided he was guilty and killed him. He could have been innocent..." Her words turned soft at the end, the thought too horrible to finish. The idea that he killed an innocent man almost sent her back over the edge.
"He wasn't," he bit out, his face settling into hard lines.
"But how do you know?" Iris asked desperately. "How can you not care than a man is dead? Because you killed him!"
"Because he was a bastard who got what was coming to him, that's how," he growled back.
He leaned down, invading her personal space.
"He decided that fifty fucking grand was worth it to cross me.
That was a bad bet on his part. Maybe now the others will think twice about taking a bribe.
" She fixated on two words in particular, barely hearing the rest of what he said.